Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!acorn!moncam!emmo
From: emmo@moncam.co.uk (Dave Emmerson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Binary: McAfee's SCANV52 (latest version, includes AIDS)
Summary: Me too
Message-ID: <356@marvin.moncam.co.uk>
Date: 10 Jan 90 18:44:38 GMT
References: <1027@tuminfo1.lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de> <13153@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Organization: Monotype ADG, Cambridge, UK
Lines: 27

In article <13153@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>, tim@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Timothy L. Kay) writes:
> > [deleted]
> 
> Ever since the virus scares started, I have stopped using free software
> unless I really needed it.  I would love to run this virus detector,
> but it seems to me that a virus detector is a perfect place to transmit
> a new virus.
> 

Quite so. That's not least amongst the reasons I greatly prefer to
have the source, even if I have to mess with it to port it to my
compiler. But be wary, it's quite easy to bury a line like
system("erase c:\*.*") ;
in a large C source, and, as the AIDS perpetrator has demonstrated,
some competent programmers will go to extraordinary lengths to
win your confidence. 
I have my own methods for protecting my data, but if I told the net
about it, someone else would invent a virus/trojan to defeat it-
maybe they already did anyway. 
It certainly has encouraged me to improve my C and roll my own, and
it's made me very much more selective about which utilities I keep
on my HD. 

BTW I know the example is incorrect, and rather blatant, if you know
it, you also know what I'm getting at, let's not go into detail!

Dave E.